"There is no "I" in team, but we sure are glad there is "u" in our volunteers."-unknown

e-RPDS 3/31/2017

Letter from the Director

Dear Redeemer Parents,

Building a strong community is a primary mission at Redeemer; it directly benefits our students and program in a multitude of ways. We are committed to building not just a strong community within our walls here at Redeemer but through the impact we have in our greater community as well. We know that our children are watching and learning from our every move, and on behalf of the faculty and staff at Redeemer, we could not be more honored to be working alongside our parents through the incredible partnership we share. The benefits of having strong parental involvement at Redeemer are obvious from the help and support you give us to the time and creativity you offer and the funds you raise to build our educational program and improve our facilities. Our parents are the reason we have such strong community service projects, fund raising events and community building opportunities. We would not be who we are without you!

I think it fitting to offer a word of thanks today to our parents as we prepare to gather tonight for our Spring Auction and Social. We look forward to seeing many of you this evening to celebrate our school community. We are incredibly grateful to the talented auction team: Kim Miller, Pam Noel, Jocelyn Szymanowski and their many volunteers for the amazing work they have put into tonight's auction. We also want to offer a very special thank you to Ruth Keffer and Jen Rakes for their outstanding leadership as our Parent Council Co-chairs this year. The time and effort they, along with the rest of our parent body, put into making our school a better place goes above and beyond our expectations.

Most importantly, thank you for sharing your wonderful children with us. We are thrilled that you have invited us on their educational journey. They are truly precious gifts to all of us!

See you tonight!

Best,

Mary

Classroom Updates:

Mrs. Arrup and Mrs. Yanega's 2s:

I hope everyone had a fun filled, relaxing spring break. It was so nice returning and seeing your sweet children's smiles. We have been wrapping up the month of March by discussing different types of weather, all of which we experienced! Their projects have included a weather wheel , a fruit loop rainbow with marshmallow clouds and a pinwheel for those windy March days! April is right around the corner and we will be learning about the color purple, ovals, insects and spring. Don't be surprised if your child crawls like a caterpillar, dances like a bee, or spins like a spider!

Mrs. Wyatt and Mrs. Zuidema's 2s:

Welcome spring!! Let's hope the weather becomes a little more predictable. March has been a lot of fun for the twos. We started the month celebrating Dr. Suess's birthday and St. Patrick's Day. Some of our activities included designing a new hat for the Cat, sorting the fox's socks, making a hot air balloon to take us to the places we'll go, and building a delicious Froot Loop rainbow with marshmallow clouds. We also worked on the colors black, white and grey with projects including pandas and penguins. After spring break, we started talking about the weather. We have learned some yoga poses that represent different kinds of weather, and we have been singing a song during Circle that has us all running to the window to see what kind of weather the day will bring. Some of our projects included a weather wheel, cloud watching binoculars, and a windy day pinwheel. With the change of season, please check cubbies for seasonally appropriate clothing and be sure to leave a sweatshirt at school for chilly mornings. As always, thank you for sharing your children with us.

Mrs. Hooper and Mrs. Grieve's 3s:

More busy and exciting days in the 3 Day 3's! We have gone from our TRANSPORTATION unit, where we talked about all things that "GO", to our COMMUNITY HELPERS unit!

The children are engaged in our conversations about the many people in our community who "HELP US". As "Police Officers" the children proudly made silver badges in addition to talking/singing about calling 911 for an emergency. We had a wonderful visit from Fireman Dew last week and we then painted our own firetrucks equipped with a working ladder! This week we were dentists, doctors and postal workers. Today, each child decorated and "signed" one postcard for a classmate and then we all "mailed" them! Keep your eyes peeled for a colorful postcard to arrive in the mail for your little one. April will be full of Spring flowers and Easter fun as we continue letter and number recognition. The children have enjoyed playing Color and Shape Bingo as a group.....a big hit! Our Easter party Mom's are Mrs. Read, Mrs. Velazquez, Mrs. Khan and Ms. Merrell...thank you all! Looking forward to seeing everyone this evening at the Spring Social and Auction!

Mrs. Schroeder and Miss Ball's 3s:

The 5 day 3s are getting back in the school groove. We have been very busy working on the color brown, the shape of diamond and learning all about what tuffets and curds and whey are. No one has wanted to try them! We are talking about signs of spring and the ever changing weather. We had a visit from the fire department and even more exciting, it was our own Catie's dad. We have been working on a transportation unit. We have made planes, trains, buses and automobiles. We have also made a plane on preparing for our "trip to Florida" Friday. We are very excited for this! We are starting to talk about community helpers. We love how many of our kids knew their mail carrier's name. We will be working more on this and will be sending home some some information soon on another fun project they can work on at home. We will be continuing with community helpers and introducing spring flowers. Hopefully, we get the nice spring weather to go with it. We hope to see many of you at the upcoming auction. Look for the fabulous art project our class made. They worked hard on it.

Mrs. Faint and Mrs. Baker's Pre-k:

March has had more lamb days than lion days according to our graph in class -probably because we didn't keep track during the Spring break snowstorm! We continue to do plenty of counting (mostly to 20) ,comparing sizes, graphing, and sequencing as we explore math concepts. This week we have focused on V with volcanoes and volume and are looking forward to W with weather and wind next week. We have had to do some "readjusting" to school routines after the break which is all part of preparing them for kindergarten. It is tough to have to wait to talk, walk on the right and remember how to negotiate with friends. Looking forward to Spring and finishing the alphabet!

Mrs. Loeb and Miss Sciuto's Pre-k:

Well, March has certainly given us lots of looks at lions and lambs! Freezing cold and very balmy all in the SAME week! It is certainly hard to know how to dress so we really appreciate the layered look for school. We have completed the letters "Uu" and "Vv" and are looking forward to "Xx" next week! Vegetables, vanilla cookies, volcanoes, vases, violets, and very noisy (haha!) have figured in to our week. Being inside is very difficult for all when spring is in air!

We made upside down cake last week and veggies with two vegetable dips this week. We are cooking fiends! We are very happy with how your children try new foods! Graysen was last week's cook and worked hard. It was a complicated recipe and she was very successful! Grace worked on the two dips, and was very careful of the hot pan for the bean dip. Both were delicious! We are still working very hard on beginning sounds. If you have time it would be useful to go over their alphabet books with them. I would love to hear that they 'read' it with you! Please check and remember to send in permission slips for "Rainbow Fish" next Monday. We are excited to see all of you at the Auction on Friday night, March 31st!

Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Vandenberg's Kindergartens:

Happy Spring! We are so excited to be coming into warmer weather and longer days. Please be on the lookout for a permission slip regarding our field trip to the zoo. Our trip is planned for Monday, April 3. This trip should be a lot of fun for everyone!

In language arts, kindergarten is finishing up learning about the magic silent e on some words. See if your child can tell you how magic e can change a vowel. We will be introducing words families and also discussing beginning, middle, and end in literature. In math, kindergarten is learning how to "count on" with bigger numbers. See if your child can tell you what number comes after 32. Kindergarten is also being introduced to the plus (+) and minus (-) signs in math.

We are just finishing our unit on outer space this week. It has been so much fun, and on Friday we will be taking the 3's class on a "space walk" to see all of the things that kindergarten has been doing these last 2 weeks. Our next unit will focus on the fish and other creatures that live in the ocean. Please send in paper towel rolls for a project that we have coming up. Thank you!

Mrs. Barta's Pre-first:

5,4,3,2,1 BLAST OFF to outer space with Pre-first. We are learning about our solar system; the sun, our planets and moon, the stars, constellations and even about life as an astronaut. We have been researching our 8 planets and have written our own factual books about the solar system. Ask your children to share some facts about the planets...they are experts!The Pre-first children continue to improve their writing each day. I am seeing capital letters, punctuation, and complete sentences that include nouns, verbs and even adjectives. Our math skills continue to develop as we work on place value, word problems, comparing whole numbers, money, addition and subtraction. We are looking forward to our field trip on Monday to the Zoo!

Lunch Bunch:

Lunch Bunch has sprung into Spring! We have begun creating many projects with pastel colors by making water color marker paintings, crayon resists paintings, painting with tissue paper and water color pencil painting!! We have many Easter projects planned for the next few weeks, including many eggs and a giant Easter Bunny that Lunch Bunch has already created! We are still discussing table manners. Lunch Bunch has gotten very good at remembering how to sit in their seat during Lunch, to ask for permission to get up, how to scoot chairs up to the table and sit up straight, and how to pick up trash that falls on the floor! Thank you for sending your children to Lunch Bunch in the afternoons! Please remember to label EVERYTHING! Now that our weather is changing it is frequently cold in the morning and warm in the afternoon. Layers are wonderful this time of year but often are left behind. Thank you so much!

Office Notes

UPCOMING CALENDAR EVENTS:

Friday, March 31 7 pm-10:30 pm Spring Auction & Social is tonight! It is not too late to join in the fun. You can purchase your ticket at the door.

Monday, April 10 Picture Day for 2/2s and Pre-first

Friday, April 14 and Monday, April 17 - No School

Easter Break

Friday, April 21 Trike Ride Charity Fundraiser

To benefit Hopkins Pediatric Oncology

3s, Pre-k, Kindergarten and Pre-first classes

Friday, April 28 Faculty Meeting

11:45 Dismissal - no afternoon programs

OFFICE NOTES

Chapel Food

For those of you who are interested this is a reminder to send chapel food in with your child on Wednesdays. You are welcome to send in enough food for the rest of the year too. We have 11 more Wednesdays this year!

2017-2018 Enrollment

We have a few remaining spots in some of our programs for next year. Our parents are our best marketing tools! If you know of someone who may be interested, please have them contact the school office to set up an appointment to tour the school. We appreciate all you do to support our school.

Program Highlights:

Maryland Science Center Visits Redeemer

Our kindergarten and pre-first played host to three other preschools to share in a fun and engaging dinosaur presentation from the Maryland Science Center. They reconstructed a life-size T-rex leg, learned more about the dinosaur diets, and learned more about fossils using their own footprints. It was the perfect culminating activity for the dinosaur studies.

Fireman Dew Visits Redeemer

Our 3s classes have been learning all about community helpers and the importance they have in our neighborhoods. Redeemer parent and volunteer firefighter, Chris Dew, shared his tanker support truck and lots of fire safety tips with our students. We are grateful to Chris and the Chestnut Ridge Volunteer Fire Department for providing us with this special presentation.

Kindergarten Space Walk

There is no better way to learn than to teach! Our 3/2s and 3s classes were excited to visit kindergarten for a very special Space Walk. Our kindergarten astronauts taught them all about planet rotation, rocket launches, the constellations and so much more. Be sure to ask your children about this very special visit to kindergarten.

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Did you know that native plants support our native birds and pollinators? That they help manage storm water runoff? And that they need less maintenance and water once established because they evolved here?

The Church of the Redeemer is hosting 5 local native plant nurseries on Saturday, April 8th. Come get to know our native plants and take some home to your house! The Boy Scouts will be selling coffee and doughnuts and assisting buyers. Several members of the Caring for Creation committee will be present to answer questions.

Children at Redeemer

on Easter

Families with children are invited to join us at our 9:00 a.m. service on Easter Sunday and in the Parish Hall after the service where the Easter Bunny will lead us out to the playgrounds for our annual Easter Egg Hunt, open to children of all ages. Please bring your own baskets or bags. Please note: This is a different location than in recent years. There will be a specially designated place for children 5 and under.

Walk Through Holy Week

Designed for children ages 4-10, but appealing to anyone who learns best through stories, this is an experiential retelling of the sacred story of the last days of Jesus' life, his crucifixion, burial and resurrection. A leader guides a progression through an interactive telling of this holy story beginning at the Triumphal Procession into Jerusalem and including stops at the Last Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter's denial, the Governor's palace, the carrying of the cross to Golgotha and the tomb.

Adults looking for a way to help a child understand more about the meaning of Easter are asked to accompany the child on this special journey.

We will begin at 11:00 a.m. on Good Friday in the chapel; we hope that you will be able to join us.